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Today’s Botanical Artists On Watercolor

4) Once you really learned watercolor, did you ever go back to graphite, ink, or colored pencil?

Olivia Marie Braida Chiusano: Yes. I do quite a bit of graphite work for clients and professional commercial assignments. The same for pen-and-ink. I also use both for fine art pieces. As for colored pencil, I only Prismacolor pencils for color studies in preparation for my large watercolor paintings.

Jean Emmons: Yes, absolutely. Also, I’ve studied egg tempera and oil painting. These two media have really helped my watercolors on vellum, as vellum can accept egg tempera hatching techniques (while using watercolor paints) and oil painting glazing techniques (using watercolor paints) in a similar way. Because the watercolor paint doesn’t absorb into the vellum, the way it does paper, the paint has more “body,” more presence.

Carol E. Hamilton: Yes. The subject matter often dictates media choices. Having command of a range of media can be extremely useful.

Wendy Hollender: Yes, I eventually fell in love with colored pencil and use that mostly.

Robin Jess: From 1972 to 1981, I worked exclusively in black and white, except for a semester in oil painting and a semester of color theory which used designer’s gouache. I used graphite, graphite powder, charcoal, etching and for scientific illustration, pen and ink, preferring Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph or Rotring technical pens. I really feel this gave me a great ability to see tone and value, which has helped my watercolor work. I did pen and ink at the same time I was beginning to learn watercolor (on my own – I never took a class in watercolor, except for the workshop I mention below). I first started using watercolor in 1980 to hand color my etchings. I thought the palest wash was very garish! Over about five years, I gradually did more and more watercolor, never really being happy with the results. In the mid-80’s, one of the first things I did as Coordinator of the New York Botanical Garden’s Botanical Illustration Certificate program (then called the Biological Art Certificate Program) was to bring out Kevin Nicolay from Seattle, an artist whose work I had admired in Horticulture Magazine. He did a three-day workshop, if I remember correctly, of which I attended two days, and I was amazed by the very little amount of water he used, and how much his technique was like drawing. After that, I began painting in the style I still use, drawing with the brush, and am happy with the results. After that, I only did watercolor, but recently have been inspired by several ASBA artists to pick up a graphite pencil again. My schedule now doesn’t allow much painting or drawing, but if I were to begin now, I would do about 85% watercolor and 15% graphite.

Libby Kyer: Yes! I use all media, sometimes combined, but my absolute favorite is colored pencil. In the end, watercolor is my least favorite medium, but I have recently learned some amazing techniques from Jean Emmons, and am working a bit more in watercolor than in previous years.

Mindy Lighthipe: Yes. I love both mediums and continue to use them alone and occasionally combine them with watercolor.

Julie Sims Messenger: No, I love losing myself in creating color and the challenge of making the most of watercolor’s luminosity never ends.

Sherry Mitchell: Yes. I do children’s book illustrating, and coloured pencil is my favourite medium. As well, both graphite and ink continue to challenge me, and I enjoy using both of them for different projects.

Rose Pellicano: I paint only in watercolor. I have not used colored pencil.

Scott Rawlins : Yes. The truth is, I work more frequently in colored pencil and other dry media, but have recently considered going back to watercolor.

Susan Rubin: I learned watercolor along with other media. It was never the right medium for me and I gravitated away from the brush and back to the pointy pencils (graphite and color) immediately!

Dolores R. Santoliquido : Yes. Watercolor is a medium I use, but I prefer to use mixed media acrylic and color pencil. This mixed media technique gives me versatility in color selection, pigments that do not rewet and therefore remain stable when I am glazing layers of color and a final product that had to date proven to be consistently lightfast.

Wendy Smith: Yes. Each medium is a skill in itself and can be used as a tool with
another medium to achieve an end product or used alone as a finished artwork. For example, you may use a graphite sketch to establish a composition to be completed in another medium, include it in a way that the mixed media are apparent or complete the entire artwork in graphite, ink or colored pencil. There are many levels of skill that can be achieved in each medium in the course of a lifetime.

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